When No Is Better Than Yes: The Advantage of Sales Rejection
By Sandy O'Dell
Salespeople are charged with, well, selling. And it doesn't matter whether we do it in person, on the phone, or even through email.
When, at any point, prospects say "no" or "call me in a few months," (translation: "no"), we have a knee-jerk reaction: press forward, invoke our services' singular benefits, and gently persuade even the most recalcitrant prospect that our firm is the right solution.
Put plainly, "no," to us, is not an acceptable answer.
But
"no," though the bête noire of all salespeople, is a fact of life.
There are many occasions where prospects simply will not budge. Their
objections are usually around insufficient funds in the budget or a
high level of satisfaction with a current service provider.
After
exhausting the long list of maneuvers to overcome objections, the
customary sales reaction is to walk away and hope that they will keep
our name and our collateral "on file," (along with piles from like
providers'), and call at some point in the future.
These rejections, however, actually represent a rich opportunity to:
- Initiate meaningful dialogue
- Learn more about your market
- Better inform your sales approach moving forward
- Forge a trusting relationship
The
last bullet is the most important. Selling professional services is all
about building trust. Trust takes time to develop, and you nourish it
in an environment where the prospect perceives you as acting in his or
her best interest.
When selling, (especially when cold selling),
prospects are typically defensive, wary, and dismissive. They often do
not offer forthright and detailed information about their challenges
and pain points because they don't know you. They don't trust you. And,
most of all, they can feel strong-armed even when your advance is far
from aggressive.
Curiously, when your prospects say "no," and
believe that you have genuinely accepted that as their response, you
create trust. They become far more likely to speak openly about of
trying issues that mire their progress. And, if managed correctly, you
can begin to emerge as their expert advisor, and the one your prospects
will most likely turn to when the time is ripe.
A Story
Take,
for example, my recent experience with a Vice President of Sales and
Marketing at a mid-sized financial services firm. We had spoken a half
a dozen times over the course of eight months. While she appeared to be
interested in using our firm to develop a comprehensive lead generation
strategy, she gave little insight into her short- and long-term
targets, and what exactly was standing in the way of getting there.
No
matter how delicately I probed, she always kept the conversation at a
very high, and very vague, level, ending with a half-hearted promise to
be in touch soon, (which she never was).
When I finally told
her that it was clear she was not ready to pursue a possible
partnership, and assured her that that was okay, really, her relief was
palpable.
No longer encumbered by the pressure of deflecting the
overtures of a nice, but dogged salesperson, (me), her posture changed
immediately. She became at ease. She willingly talked.
No Longer A Salesperson
Once
I accepted her "no," I shifted my goal to simply sharing relevant
insights and expertise. I crafted a new series of questions
accordingly. I asked her:
- What is your current lead generation strategy and how successful has it been?
- What chief barriers are preventing you from reaching your goals?
- If you could identify one or two "wish list" resources to improve the performance of your division, what would they be?
Her
answers were lengthy and specific enough so that I could recommend a
number of tactical and strategic measures to minimize her threats and
improve the efficacy of her sales and marketing programs.
I accomplished two vital objectives with this conversation:
- First,
it kick-started the process of building trust, increasing the odds that
she would turn to our firm for sales and marketing consulting when she
needed it.
- Second, it secured vital intelligence that deepened my understanding of the market – the risks that confronted it, the frustrations that beleaguered it – thereby sharpening my effectiveness as a sales person.
There are countless
iterations of questions you can ask, depending on the circumstances of
your prospects as you understand them. Be careful not to use these
questions as a ruse to elbow your way back to the Sales Front.
The important point here is to learn enough of your prospect's current situation, as it relates to your services, so that you can give them the benefit of your expertise and provide value, even when they have no interest in buying.
Don't get me wrong. I am not advocating that as salespeople, we roll over and give up prematurely. But I do argue that we must recognize when "yes" is a long way out, and treat "no" as a door opening, not slamming shut.